There are a couple of reasons for this — one is obvious, the other is not.

Most Windows users don’t see Vista as a must-have upgrade, the way Windows 95 and XP were. As I wrote in the Vista review that will serve as my Tuesday column: If you have it, you’re glad you do. But if you don’t have it . . . well, Windows XP works just fine, thanks (so long as XP is fully patched, that is, with up-to-date drivers and free of spyware, viruses and bloatware).

But there’s another factor that will keep the hordes at bay. Most of the users who’d be inclined to stand in line have already gotten their hands on Vista. They know what it looks like and how it behaves.

There’s no mystery, there’s no surprise.

Vista was the first version of Windows which the public was allowed to download and test in large numbers. More than 2 million people snagged Vista in its public beta and release candidate phases, Microsoft says.

That takes a couple million out of the lines. Those early birds showed the OS to their friends, expounding on the pros and cons. If those friends saw the earlier betas, they heard mostly cons. That’s quite a few more who won’t queue up.

In addition, Vista was released to businesses on Nov. 30. That means IT types who get their jollies over a new release of Windows have already seen it and may even be using it. Scratch them.

Finally, Vista will be available for sale by download. The only waiting you’ll need to do is for the gigabytes that come streaming over your broadband connection.

No, you won’t hear the sounds of crowds cheering when Vista goes on sale at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday. You’ll just hear the echoes of yawning sales personnel and the occasional Vista buyer asking how much an additional 512 MB of RAM will cost him.

18 Responses

Just my opinion, but ANYONE who waits in line at midnight to buy this thing is an idiot.

This is not a video game. It’s not “fun.” It won’t make you a chick (or guy) magnet. It’s more likely to cause you fustration. They will have PLENTY in stock. They will not be selling it on ebay for an inflated price. So get plenty of sleep and go when you feel like it.

With Vista, a new day will dawn. A new generation of developers will come. This is good. We want to solve the problems at hand, and not the plumbing. With CLR and XML & .NET, we are closer to the problem domain than ever.

hey, talking about full-patched XP systems, don’t you people worry that MS will play some dirty trick to make people buying their new product? for example, stop writing patches, or start making the xp system not stable or secure anymore(i.e., hacking their own previous product).

maybe i am kind of crazy about it. but, market is a battle field, who knows what the general going to do in order to win the war?

btw, i used the beta version of Vista, IT SUCKS. i hate the feature of so called security, it’s really annoying.

I might be in line at midnight but not to buy Vista. My line will be at the bathroom. Vista? I will look at it in a year or two. Maybe if I ever buy a new ‘puter. Maybe if I ever decide to go broadband. Free dial-up is fine with me. It’s a bit slow but what’s the rush? Downloads? Naw, not for me or at least makes me go out and visit friends ( so I can use their broadband for downloads)

Dwight, please put on your “I am not a geek” hat. Now, if you were ordering a new computer, and, in the main (90% of the time) used it only for e-mail, reading chron.com blogs, on-line banking, a very little shopping and to look up stuff on Google, etc., would you want Vista included?

I rarely download music, and the only game I play is solitaire. Quit laughing, Good Dwight, and answer my question! And no, I am not a chick, which should be obvious….more like an old broody hen!

XP has served me well and shall continue to serve me well for years to come. I am going to skip Windows Vista as much as I can. But the problem is that I am a gamer and seen as DirectX 10 is Vista Only I will probably be forced to upgrade.

Anyone even considering Vista should read Peter Guttmann’s white paper – A Cost Analysis Of Windows Vista Content Protection. I have been a Windows user ever since switching from CP/M to 3.1 but I am done. An OS which will continually require me to revalidate the ownership of my software, disable hardware based on content I am using, disable or permenantly make uninstallable drivers based on criteria established by Microsoft is just a little too much control in Redmond’s hands. Yes everyone else is going to end up using it because they don’t see a viable alternative – Mac prices itself out of the market with hardware costs that don’t make sense to a PC user and Linux is just not ready for prime time on the plug and play front.

To those of you who will be installing Vista – enjoy, but remember you now have no say in what peripherals and software Windows will and will not allow you to use.

If you choose to purchase an upgrade version of Windows Vista to upgrade XP, you will no longer be able to use that version of XP. Either on another system, or as a dual-boot option. The key will be invalidated, preventing activation…wtf?

“13. UPGRADES. To use upgrade software, you must first be licensed for the software that is eligiblefor the upgrade. Upon upgrade, this agreement takes the place of the agreement for the software you upgraded from. After you upgrade, you may no longer use the software you upgraded from.”

Thanks, rick6400. Just when I was considering splurging on Vista, just for the fun of it, you come along and burst my balloon. The plan was to dual boot XP and Vista for a while, to make sure I am really truly comfortable with Vista before I drink the Kool-Aid. Oh, I suppose I could just ignore the license restriction and continue to dual boot Vista and the now-illegal copy of XP. But that bit of info really rains on my parade, if you know what I mean. Maybe I’ll just wait a while after all.

I hate to say it, but Vista is most of the reason why I decided to go Mac. Well…not ENTIRELY mac. I still have 8 Windows XP machines purring nicely around the house. And today I installed Parallels and Windows XP on my Macbook. So I guess I’m not fully committed. But I can say without a doubt that I will never pay for Vista. Not directly, anyway.

It just seems like Microsoft gets more fascist every year. I can understand trying to prevent piracy but come on, I have to buy a new copy of Vista if I upgrade my hard drive? Or my RAM? Sheesh. Give me a glowing apple logo any day over trying to futz with a bloated piece of OS madness with no real perks beyond aesthetic appeal.

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